Book 43: The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

Every time I come back around to the Mystery genre I think that I should probably branch out a bit and try some other authors.  But Agatha Christie is just so good!  I am trying something slightly different... instead of reading one of her Hercule Poirot books, I'm trying the first Miss Marple book.  Maybe next time I'll try a different author, but for now, I'm going to enjoy some more of this one.

247 pages is an easy 36 pages per day.


REVIEW:  Well, this is the third Agatha Christie novel that I've read and I still have not been able to guess the ending correctly.  The first two that I read were sort of gimmicky in that the endings were based more on the author's tricks than on a cunning plan.  This one, however, got me.  It was solely due to the plan by the guilty party that I was duped.

As I mentioned in the intro, this is the first Miss Marple book that I've read.  It was definitely a different style than the Poirot mysteries.  Miss Marple took almost a back-seat to the story.  Most of the book was narrated by another character, the vicar of the title's vicarage.  Occasionally, Miss Marple would show up and give some subtle clues or ideas and then disappear again for a few more chapters.  It's almost a stretch to even call it a "Miss Marple mystery" when she is hardly in the book at all.  She does show up at the end to wrap up the case, though, and since this is the first appearance of the character, I'm giving it a bit of leeway.

The book was very fun, though, and I raced through it, excited by the thrill of the case.  Christie writes some very memorable characters and very clever plots.  One of these days I'll actually figure out the mystery before the end but, until then, I look forward to being outsmarted a few more times by Ms. Christie.

8 out of 10.